I realised the other day when looking through the first draft of the third book in my trilogy that no scene takes place in November 1945 and as far as I was aware, nothing interesting happened in Palestine that month. Then I realised that I spent most of that month on board the liner Caernarvon Castle, travelling from Durban to Suez. Nowadays people travelling on liners may be able to keep in touch with what is happening anywhere in the world, but not so in 1945.
Even when we had landed and in Suez and had travelled on to Palestine to meet my father, whom we had not seen for two and a half years, for the rest of November I was too immersed in settling into our new home on Mt Carmel and into my new school.
Once I realised why I had no interesting memories, I looked through a few timelines on the internet and found one that claimed terrorists had bombed CID HQ in Jerusalem on November 25th.
As is my custom when finding an entry so close to home I brought up the relevant issues of the Palestine Post to read reports and comments. I found nothing in November about the blowing up of any CID station but as I skimmed through a story emerged of escalating violemce culminating in the most deplorable happenings in the Hefer Valley area. It was hard to believe that such a disaster could have occured while I was in Palestine and that it had passed me by.It would not have done so two and a half years earlier, nor would it have done so a few weeks later when I had once more become accustomed to discussing current affairs with my father.
A word here about the Palestine Post. It was an English language paper published by a Jewish firm but read by all the British, because its front pages and editorials not only concentrated on internationl news but also reported on British football matches and county cricket. It covered Palestinian affairs as well, of course and in the least overtly biased way of any Palestinian paper.
Comparing it to contemporary English papers, it had more in common with the Manchester Guardian than the Daily Mirror.
It is now readily accessible to all. Formerly, if I wanted to read an item in the Palestine Post, I had to travel to the British newspaper library at Colindale where I might wait hours for a microfiche reader to become available.
Now however, I just click on the favourites button on my computer and I can browse through all the extant issues.
This is thanks to the University of Tel Aviv's Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project , established by Prof. Yaron Tzur. In personal terms I am extremely grateful to the technology manager, Shaul A. Duke (fka Shaul Garcia), who has helped me so often when I changed to a new browser.
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Sunday 18 January 2009
An introduction
Land of Broken Promises is the name I gave to the trilogy of novels I planned many years ago to be set in the British Mandate of Palestine covering the years 1938-1948. I chose to concentrate on this period and this location because I spent my childhood in Palestine when it was being governed by the British. So far only the first novel in the trilogy has been published and in some ways I wish it hadn't (although I was grateful at the time for the money received from the publishers!)
The trouble is, once one part of a trilogy is set in stone, it limits what one can do with the rest. One can't change the names of the main characters, nor alter their previous history, however convenient it would be for the novel one is currently writing.
The title of the novel that has been published is Struggling Free and covers the period 1938-1941. It centres on three very young women, one English, one Jewish and one Arabic who between them are unintentionally responsible for the death of two men.
The second novel has the working title Spreading Tattered Wings and covers the period 1941-1945 It has not yet been published. I learnt my lesson on that with Struggling Free.
I am working on the third novel (working title Home to Roost) and am about two thirds of the way through. It will cover the period 1945-1948.
Some people seem to be able to dash away at their novels and do their research later. I can't do that. I do my research first but am constantly discovering while writing how much more research I need to do and find can't continue writing until the facts are clear
In the course of this blog I hope to show some of the things, not necessarily of a literary nature that I have learnt during the years I have been writing this trilogy
The trouble is, once one part of a trilogy is set in stone, it limits what one can do with the rest. One can't change the names of the main characters, nor alter their previous history, however convenient it would be for the novel one is currently writing.
The title of the novel that has been published is Struggling Free and covers the period 1938-1941. It centres on three very young women, one English, one Jewish and one Arabic who between them are unintentionally responsible for the death of two men.
The second novel has the working title Spreading Tattered Wings and covers the period 1941-1945 It has not yet been published. I learnt my lesson on that with Struggling Free.
I am working on the third novel (working title Home to Roost) and am about two thirds of the way through. It will cover the period 1945-1948.
Some people seem to be able to dash away at their novels and do their research later. I can't do that. I do my research first but am constantly discovering while writing how much more research I need to do and find can't continue writing until the facts are clear
In the course of this blog I hope to show some of the things, not necessarily of a literary nature that I have learnt during the years I have been writing this trilogy
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